


There were three in the bed, and the little one said...

by surgicalfocus



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Parents, Domestic, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-04-23 11:15:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19149898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/surgicalfocus/pseuds/surgicalfocus
Summary: "Roll over."





	There were three in the bed, and the little one said...

**Author's Note:**

> Hi Gris, hope you like your fic! This is my first time writing a fic with baekyeol as parents -- or indeed anything to do with parents or kids, lol -- so maybe don't expect too much from it XD hope you enjoy it anyhow (and anyone else who reads this) xx
> 
> Playlist for this fic:
> 
> 1\. [Thank You - Dido](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TO48Cnl66w)  
> 2\. [My Baby - Cold Chisel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S2vyUd6vF4)  
> 3\. [Paint the Moon - The Czars](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlwTnk7ZnQw)  
> 4\. [Puff the Magic Dragon - Peter, Paul & Mary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7lmAc3LKWM)  
> 5\. [The first time ever I saw your face - Peter, Paul & Mary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_mEOGDVcD4)  
> 6\. [Golden Slumbers - The Beatles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcQjM7gV6mI)  
> 7\. [Ten Days - Missy Higgins](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eBCYW9hgpY)

 

Baekhyun woke up to something soft and feathery tickling his face; then he turned his head to the side, opened his mouth to take a breath, and immediately got a mouthful of hair. He wrinkled his nose and opened his eyes, blinking to clear away the blur of sleep. Chanyeol lay next to him, snoring softly, and wedged between the two of them was their four-year-old daughter.

He raised himself up on his elbows and watched her for a moment. She was fast asleep — or pretending to be, which Baekhyun knew she was very good at. A tickle test would probably confirm this suspicion, but he didn’t yet have the energy to dodge any flailing limbs; instead he leaned over her sleeping body to pinch Chanyeol lightly on the shoulder.

“Ow,” Chanyeol said instantly, but there was no feeling in it, and Baekhyun knew there was no way a tiny pinch like that could have actually hurt. One hand reached around to rub the spot where Baekhyun had pinched him. “What was that for..?”

“What’s Minhee doing here?” Baekhyun asked, lowering his voice to a whisper.

Chanyeol sighed and rolled over to face the other way. “Dunno,” he mumbled, “she must’ve wandered in on her own.”

Baekhyun knew this was unlikely — Chanyeol was always letting her in their bed even when he wasn’t supposed to — but he didn’t say so. “We’ve been through this, Yeol… she’s a big girl now, she should be sleeping in her own bed.”

“What do you mean? No she’s not.” Chanyeol reached for the sleeping little girl cuddled up between them and pulled her into his arms, carefully so as not to wake her. She stirred a bit, but although her eyelids flickered, they remained closed. “She’s _not_ a big girl, not yet,” he said, kissing the top of her head. “She’s still my teenie-weenie baby-boo.”

“ _Our_ teenie-weenie baby-boo, you mean,” Baekhyun grumbled, and then he shook his head. “No, hang on a minute… she’s four now, she isn’t a baby anymore. 

“Yeah? Just like I said,” Chanyeol murmured softly, brushing Minhee’s hair aside to kiss her forehead again. “Still a lil’ baby-boo.”

Baekhyun sighed. “This is why she’s always sneaking into our bed. If you keep spoiling her, she’ll never grow out of it.”

“Oh, come on… don’t be a meanie. As soon as she turns five, we’ll start putting our foot down.”

“Fine,” Baekhyun said, “if you say so.” She was here now, anyway, and there was nothing else to do but go back to sleep and worry about it later. Sure it was cute to have Minhee sleeping in their bed with them from time to time, or at least it _had_ been, when she was younger; but now that she was getting bigger, she was starting to take up too much room, and Chanyeol took up more than enough on his own.

 

Baekhyun couldn’t work out the exact time she had begun this phase of wandering into their bedroom in the middle of the night. Thankfully it wasn’t every night, but it happened often enough — at least two or three nights a week — and every time there was some kind of excuse for it. The excuses, he’d noticed, had become more believable as she got older and better at fibbing. They started out as “I had a scary dream” or “I saw a monster,” and evolved into things like “you didn’t tuck me in right” or “I’m hungry” — she had learned to take advantage of this last one especially, probably because she knew Baekhyun hated the thought of her being hungry, even if there was a good chance it was bullshit. Too many times he’d sat at the table at some ungodly hour, with a glass of milk and some buttered toast he’d made for his mischievous daughter — who in reality was probably not hungry at all, it was just an excuse to hold his attention hostage for a little while. And then he would end up eating the toast himself, because Minhee would only take one or two bites out of it to keep up the charade, and it seemed shameful to throw the rest of it out. This was probably why he’d put on three kilos over the past few months.

Something had to be done, he thought, to get her to sleep in her own bed. Chanyeol was all too happy to have her there with them now, but would he still want her doing this when she was six or seven? What if it lasted longer than that? They would have to break her out of the habit soon, or it would only get worse. 

“Roll over,” Minhee demanded, beating Baekhyun’s shoulder with one of her little fists. “You’re squishing me!”

Chanyeol turned on his side, letting out a quiet sigh. “Well, you heard the girl… scooch over a little, would you?”

“Do I need to remind the two of you whose bed this is?” Baekhyun said grumpily — and it _was_ technically his; he’d already had it before Chanyeol moved in with him six years ago.

He lay down and tried to go back to sleep, feeling a little disappointed. Minhee being in their bed again meant no opportunity for Sunday morning cuddles, something he always craved the most; being unattached and lonely was one thing, but the singular loneliness that came with being in an old, comfortable relationship with one small child was a different beast altogether. It was Baekhyun rolling over to stare at Chanyeol’s sleeping form in the early morning light, and wondering when he’d stopped feeling like the entire world lay at their feet. It was kissing each other desperately in the shower while their daughter was asleep, Baekhyun’s back pressed up against the wet glass while Chanyeol sucked and nibbled at his neck — and then being so busy or exhausted that they spent the next few weeks barely touching each other at all. It was standing up at the kitchen bench to finally eat dinner (long since grown cold) after tucking Minhee into bed, neither of them saying much, just smiling tiredly at each other above the bowls balanced in their hands. It was Chanyeol copping a cheeky feel of Baekhyun’s arse while he was bent over to stack the dishwasher, and promising in a low whisper that if he came to bed soon, there would be plenty more where that came from; and then, a little later, falling asleep before he could keep that promise.

 

As if reading Baekhyun’s mind, Chanyeol lifted his head up from the pillow, his hair falling into his eyes, and leaned over their sleeping daughter to give him a soft, messy but passionate kiss on the lips. “Happy Sunday,” he whispered, and soon one kiss turned into many more. The furtiveness their intimate life had adopted was fun to Chanyeol; he found it sexy and exciting, the need to steal these moments wherever they could get them, but Baekhyun just thought it was inconvenient. And now Chanyeol was kissing him, and he was so into it that he almost forgot Minhee was there, asleep between the two of them. Reluctantly he broke the kiss, pushing Chanyeol away. “Okay, that’s enough. She’s right there, you know.”

Chanyeol pouted, leaning in again to nuzzle Baekhyun’s neck instead. “So… what’s wrong with her seeing us kiss? She’s asleep, anyway.”

“Well… I guess kissing is okay.” Baekhyun said, and cringed. “As long as she doesn’t ever see anything else.”

“She won’t,” Chanyeol laughed, “don’t worry. Haven’t we always been careful?”

How could he guarantee that, though, when she seemed to always be wandering into their bedroom now? Baekhyun had tried to patiently explain the problem to her before, in terms she could understand — _“Minhee, sometimes your daddies like to cuddle each other too... but we can’t do that while you’re in our bed, because there isn’t enough room there and you might get squished.”_ And while she had nodded and appeared to understand at the time, some part of it clearly wasn’t sinking in.

 

And she was nothing if not consistent: she tried it again the very next night, just after they’d finally managed to get her to bed. Mondays never gave Baekhyun any love as it was, but that day had been especially tiring, and he was looking forward to getting some rest.

“What’s wrong?” Chanyeol asked him later, when they were in bed together. “You seem a bit out of it tonight.”

“I don’t know. I just know that I really need to get more sleep.” Baekhyun sighed, covering his face with his hands as the day’s events came flooding back. “I was talking to a client of mine on the phone this afternoon, and without even thinking, I ended the call with ‘love you’ instead of ‘bye’.”

Chanyeol laughed. “Wow, okay… should I be jealous?”

“No, he’s probably twice my age. I hung up before he had the chance to say anything, but he’s coming into the office for a meeting next week.” Just the thought made Baekhyun want to squirm with embarrassment all over again. “That ought to be interesting…”

Chanyeol moved over until he was close enough to rest his head against Baekhyun’s back. “So just act like nothing’s happened,” he said, kissing Baekhyun’s shoulder. “He’ll probably think he misheard. If he even heard it to begin with.” 

“Mmm,” Baekhyun said, “I suppose you’re right.” He turned around to let Chanyeol kiss him on the lips instead, and Chanyeol quickly got the hint — panting into Baekhyun’s mouth while he rolled on top of him, one hand working to loosen the drawstring on his pyjama bottoms. Then they heard a knock on the bedroom door, and Baekhyun’s eyes fluttered open.

“Shit, not again.” He pushed Chanyeol away from him, lying down flat against the bed. “Pretend to be asleep.”

Barely a moment later, the door slowly creaked open. “Daddy..?”

Chanyeol glanced over at Baekhyun. His eyes seemed to say _now what?_ , and Baekhyun shot him a warning look in response that he hoped said _don’t you dare move, or make a sound. Don’t even breathe._

Baekhyun couldn’t see Minhee, but he could sense her standing there in the doorway, hesitating, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. “Daaaaaddy,” she said again, drawing it out in a whine.

Chanyeol's head immediately popped up like a meerkat’s. “Which one?”

Baekhyun shoved him in the shoulder. “Yeol!”

“What? She was calling me,” Chanyeol said, pouting. “I think. Or it might’ve been you.”

Baekhyun groaned. Well it was too late now; she knew they were awake.

With permission to enter now unofficially granted, Minhee ran gleefully over to the bed, her little feet pattering on the floorboards; Baekhyun loved that sound normally, but in their present situation it inspired more dread than anything else. “I can’t sleep,” she said, “can I sleep with you?”

“Yes you can,” Chanyeol replied, and then had the audacity to shriek when Baekhyun pinched his thigh under the covers.

“Minhee, honey,” he said, in a voice that was gentle but stern, “we’ve talked about this many times. Now that you’re a big girl, you should be sleeping in your own bed. Not ours.”

“But I can’t,” she said, pouting — a trick she had definitely _not_ learned from Baekhyun.

“And why’s that?”

“I just _can’t_ ,” she repeated, and then added, “because I’m scared.” She rubbed the end of her little nose. There it was, the lip tremble — Chanyeol always fell for that old routine, he really was too soft when it came to their daughter; Baekhyun suspected that he saw through all of Minhee’s tricks, but was happy to go along with them simply because he was so smitten with her.

And then, just like that, she was in their bed again. Baekhyun sighed. He could kiss sleep goodbye for another night, but at least their daughter was happy.

“Don’t be too hard on her, babe.” Baekhyun felt Chanyeol’s lips on his forehead, leaving a line of kisses from brow to temple. “You remember how hard we fought to get her, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun sighed. Of course he remembered, though there were plenty of things about that chapter in their lives that he wished to forget. A time of dashed hopes, heartbreak, and waiting — endless waiting. And then she arrived — their little Christmas miracle, because she had been born in December, two weeks after Chanyeol’s thirtieth birthday — and she had changed everything. And he was overjoyed to have her; there was nothing that made him happier than knowing she was all theirs for life. But he had never felt so bloody unsettled before, and it was a feeling that would never wear off; like the love he had for her, for his little family, it was a permanent murmur in his heart.

As much as he hated himself for it, there was also a trace of bitterness there, knowing Chanyeol’s love and attention didn’t belong to him alone anymore. They had worked hard to get her, would work even harder to raise her, and would sacrifice themselves and each other in the meantime. Baekhyun didn’t like feeling that way — looking back with wistful eyes at their pre-fatherhood existence, when they had both been blissfully, deliriously in love and life had seemed a lot simpler — but it was hard not to, sometimes. How things had changed over the past four years.

“So what’s the hurry?” Chanyeol said. “These years will probably be the best ones… why don’t we just enjoy them while we still have her all to ourselves? Don’t make her feel like she has to grow up when she’s still just a little kid; there’s plenty of time for her to grow up later.”

“It was hard enough looking after one baby, and now look at me… I have two of you to worry about.” Baekhyun sighed. “And what about when you’re away? How am I going to get her to behave herself all on my own?”

Chanyeol laughed softly and rested his head on Baekhyun’s shoulder. He looked so peaceful that Baekhyun was almost too scared to breathe in case he disturbed him.

“Don’t worry, you’ll do a great job,” he whispered, murmuring into a kiss on the side of Baekhyun’s neck. “You always do.”

 

*·。°*·。°*

 

Before they had Minhee, Chanyeol had gone on frequent business trips, which became far less common after she came along. The upcoming one was the longest he’d taken in years; he would be away for ten whole days, and Baekhyun couldn’t say he was looking forward to it. Chanyeol was the level-headed one, who always seemed to take it in his stride whenever Minhee was being difficult — which thankfully wasn’t often, though it happened more often than it used to.

In the days leading up to Chanyeol’s departure, Minhee became sulky. She knew exactly what was going on, clearly, and Baekhyun knew how she felt. He remembered the years before they became fathers, all those times Chanyeol had been away for work and he’d had to warm up their bed all on his own. Only hugging Chanyeol’s pillow could make him get to sleep. Chanyeol was so big and excitable and puppy-like, so hard to miss when he was in the room, that he became very easy to miss when he was outside of it; he would always leave a huge space that was impossible to fill, and only one of his warm, enveloping hugs would erase the loneliness again upon his return.

Would Minhee sulk like this if _he_ were the one going away instead? It was no good to compare themselves to each other like that; there was no way Minhee could possibly know that Chanyeol was her biological father and Baekhyun was not — they wouldn’t tell her this until she was older — but sometimes Baekhyun couldn’t help wondering. It was something small that had been niggling at him recently: the way she always ran to Chanyeol first when she needed comfort, or a hug, or something else. Maybe it was just that Chanyeol was the nicer daddy, the one who spoiled her; she loved Baekhyun too, but he was the disciplinarian, not the ‘fun’ one.

“Why do you have to go for?” Baekhyun said, watching Chanyeol pack on the night before he was due to fly out. Now he felt sulky too, just like Minhee.

Chanyeol was trying to zip up his luggage, straining with the effort to keep it closed. “You know I have to go, Baek... it’s just easier if I go over there and speak to the factories directly, otherwise things take a lot longer to get right. And the launch is in September, I don’t have a lot of time left to fling about.”

“Ten days is too long.” Baekhyun knew he should have been used to this by now, but he wasn’t. “It’s at least nine days too long.”

Chanyeol looked like he was trying not to laugh, and struggling. “Next time I go away, I’ll buy you one of those husband pillows for single people… you know, the ones with the arm that wraps around you so you can cuddle it,” he said. “Then maybe you won’t miss me so much.”

“Ha ha,” Baekhyun said, rolling his eyes, but inside his chest, there was nothing but fondness. He did feel selfish complaining about it, even if his whining was only half-hearted; he knew how important this trip was for Chanyeol’s job. At the end of the day, he was doing this for them -- for the three of them. He wasn’t spending ten days away from his family because he wanted to.

“Anyway, I think it’ll be good bonding time for you two… you won’t have big old me getting in the way, for once.” Chanyeol finally managed to zip up his luggage, and sat there on the floor looking pleased with himself. He directed his smile towards Baekhyun, making kissy faces at him. “Now, are you gonna give me some pre-business-trip loving, or what? Like you said, ten days is a long time.”

 

Thankfully, Minhee did them the great service of staying in her own bed that night, and Baekhyun relished the opportunity for some time alone with Chanyeol, knowing it would be their last night together for a week and a half. “I’m going to miss you so much,” he whispered, kissing the bridge of Chanyeol’s nose while they were cuddling afterwards. “How the hell am I gonna sleep alone for the next ten nights?”

“Let’s face it, you probably _won’t_ be sleeping alone,” Chanyeol pointed out -- jokingly, but also partly serious.

Baekhyun groaned. “Don’t remind me… I’m gonna have to work on her while you’re gone.”

“Why? She was still a toddler only a year ago, Baek.” Chanyeol rolled over onto his side and pulled Baekhyun against him, holding him tight around the waist. “Don’t worry about it so much.”

“If I don’t worry about it, who will?” Baekhyun said flatly. “You..?”

He could almost hear Chanyeol rolling his eyes behind him. “It’s just… sometimes I wonder if you’re overcompensating a little,” he said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Baekhyun asked, feeling himself bristling already. He moved away from Chanyeol’s body, turning around to glare at him.

“Well…” Chanyeol rubbed the back of his neck, which he usually did whenever he was about to say something he thought Baekhyun wouldn’t like. “All I’m saying is, she’s just as much yours as she is mine. You don’t have to be so hardcore about this parenting gig... she has two dads who love her to bits, she’s gonna turn out alright.”

Baekhyun looked at him for a long time. “Are you saying this because it was your sperm and not mine?” He managed a laugh, but it was dry and joyless, and he didn’t bother trying to hide the irritation in it. “Boy, you’d better watch yourself.”

Chanyeol sighed and turned around to face the other way. “Whatever… I’m not gonna argue about this with you. Just forget I said anything, okay?” Baekhyun stared at his back for a moment before rolling over himself and trying to go to sleep, but he already had a feeling that it wouldn’t come.

 

*·。°*·。°*

 

It seemed fitting that the day Chanyeol left was miserable — cold and rainy, the sky a dreary grey — and Baekhyun found it harder than ever to get out of bed. Usually Chanyeol took Minhee to preschool and Baekhyun picked her up again in the afternoon; that day, though, he would have to take Chanyeol to the airport first, and then drop Minhee off on his way to work. He hadn’t exactly been relishing the thought — taking care of her all on his own — and he felt bad about it; but all he could do was keep reminding himself that it was only temporary.

 

For the first two nights, at least, things went fine. She ate most of what he put in front of her, put her toys away when he told her to, and stayed in bed when he put her there; but by the third night, she was up to her old tricks again. Baekhyun blamed it on the wild weather that night — there was a storm, and he knew she was afraid of storms. And when he looked at her eyes, which were Chanyeol’s eyes — the same big brown puppy eyes he would turn on whenever he wanted to cuddle but Baekhyun was too tired — he knew there was no way he could say no.

“Fine,” he sighed, throwing back the covers on one side to let her in, “but just this once.”

He already knew he was signing himself up for a sleepless night when he agreed to this. It was not unreasonable to expect they’d have more room without Chanyeol there, but Minhee quickly shattered this expectation: all night long, all she did was toss and turn, hog the covers, and kick him in her sleep. For such a tiny thing, she could commandeer an extraordinary amount of space; and it seemed that the more space there was, the more she took over.

 

Baekhyun dragged himself out of bed the next morning full of regret, with dry eyes and a headache that felt like he’d taken a frying pan to the forehead. He’d woken up frightfully late, and dropped Minhee off at preschool even later. He was so late that he seriously considered calling in sick, but instead he swallowed down the temptation and just went. No one seemed to care that he wasn’t on time, so it was fine; but he felt wretched all day, and constantly toyed with the idea of just giving up and going home early. Keeping awake during a morning meeting was torture, and excusing himself to the bathroom to splash cold water on his face was his only weapon against it. Chanyeol called him quickly at midday, and the sound of his voice instantly made Baekhyun brighten, if only a little; but then the call ended, and he went back to withering even more than before.

He got another call at around two o’clock, this time from Minhee’s preschool, saying she’d been sick and he would have to come and pick her up early. This presented its own problems, but Baekhyun was almost glad for the excuse to leave. When he arrived to collect her, she was wearing different clothes. One of the preschool teachers handed her original ones to him; they were inside a knotted plastic bag, but he could still smell the puke.

“What’s wrong, honey?” he asked Minhee in the car. “Do you still feel sick?”

“No,” she replied — not sullen or anything, just matter-of-fact. That was all she said, and then she spent the rest of the drive being quiet and looking at whatever was out the window. She did look a little pale, but she didn’t seem too distressed. Maybe it was just something she’d eaten that hadn’t agreed with her.

 

She went to sleep soon after they got home, not waking up again until the next morning, and Baekhyun was grateful to have a peaceful night to himself. The next day, though, he got another call from her preschool while he was at the office — this time saying that she was having some sort of crying fit, and there was nothing they could do to calm her down. Baekhyun went to pick her up again at the expense of his lunch break, and, not knowing what else he could do with her, took her back to work with him, where she sat next to him at his desk for the rest of the day, doodling on a piece of paper and being fawned over by all of his colleagues.

“She’s so adorable,” gushed Irene from HR, who often stopped by Baekhyun’s desk to say hi on her way to the lunchroom. “And she looks just like you, too. She really has your nose.” 

She didn’t really look him at all, Baekhyun thought. He stifled the impulse to say, _well, actually, she looks a lot more like my partner than she looks like me, because she was made with his spoof and not mine._ But no one needed to know about this little complex of his, so instead he just smiled and simply said, “thank you.”

 

During the drive home that evening, Minhee asked, “when’s daddy coming back?”

Baekhyun glanced at her quickly from the driver’s seat. “He’s only been gone three days,” he replied. “It’ll be another week before he comes home.”

“But what day is he coming?”

“Next Friday.”

She frowned. “What’s today?”

“Thursday.”

“Oh,” she said, and then she fell silent, looking out the window at the rain. When she spoke again, she sounded deflated. “I miss him.”

“I know, honeybun,” Baekhyun said quietly, “me too.”

“Can we call him and tell him to come back tomorrow..?”

Baekhyun found it hard not to chuckle at the earnestness of her request. “No, we can’t… daddy has important things to do while he’s away. You’ll just have to be patient until he gets home.” But this was easier said than done, and he knew it better than anyone.

 

He'd ended up having to take work home with him that night; between carting Minhee around and leaving early the day before, he’d fallen behind on a deadline that was due before the weekend. He sat at the dining table with his laptop after dinner, tap-tapping away, while Minhee was sprawled out on the carpet over in the living room, accompanied by every single member of her extensive stuffed animal collection. Baekhyun glanced up at her every so often, watching her host a tea party with three teddies, a rabbit and her favourite toy lion as guests. He smiled and went back to his work.

“Daddy,” Minhee said out of the blue, when they’d both been silent for some time; Baekhyun had been so engrossed in what he was doing and she had been so quiet that he’d forgotten she was there, and now she was standing beside him, looking up at him expectantly. 

“Yes, honeybun,” he said, “is there something you want?” 

“I’m bored. Will you play with me?”

Baekhyun grimaced. She was looking up at him, willing him to say yes with those Chanyeol-puppy-eyes again; but the work he was doing was due in precisely fifteen hours, and he already knew he was going to have to work well into the night to get it done.

“I can’t, Minhee,” he said. He reached over for the cup of coffee he’d made to keep himself alert and took a sip, making a face when he realised it was cold; it was the second cup he’d made and then forgotten about. “Daddy has to work right now. We can play on the weekend, I promise.”

Minhee looked at Baekhyun unflinchingly, for such a long time that it almost made him uncomfortable. “You’re always working,” she said quietly, glumly, and then she dragged her little feet back over to the corner of the living room. When Baekhyun dared to glance up at her again, he saw that she had given up on her little stuffed animal tea party, and was curled up on the floor instead, foetal and unmoving, apparently staring at the wall even though the television was still on behind her. _You’re always working._ In any other tone of voice, it could have been a simple statement; but this was definitely an accusation, and Baekhyun felt it, and it stung.

 

The next time he checked his watch, it was nearly eleven o’clock; he’d forgotten all about her again, and she had fallen asleep on the floor. Feeling terrible and cursing himself under his breath, he went over to pick her up, and carried her gently over to her bedroom. When he laid her down and began to tuck her in, she stirred a little, but it wasn’t until he was halfway out the door that she called out for him.

“Yes, honey,” he said, poking his head back through the door, “what’s the matter?”

She was sitting up in bed, rubbing her eyes. “Can I sleep with you..?”

“I’m not going to sleep just yet,” Baekhyun said quietly, “I have more work to do.” 

“Then can I go to sleep when you go to sleep..?”

“No, Minhee, it’s very late. You have to go to sleep right now, or you’ll be too tired to play with your friends tomorrow.”

“But I don’t want to go to sleep now.” Her voice was beginning to get that wailing edge to it.

“But you have to. Anyway, I can see that you’re tired.”

She frowned at him, both her brows pushed downwards like angry little arrows. “Am not.”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes. They could go on like this all night, and he really didn’t have the time. “You’re going to bed now,” he said, pointing a finger at her, “whether you like it or not,” and he walked out of the room before she could get another word in.

 

When he went back to the table to work, however, he turned around and saw that she’d followed him out of her bedroom. “What are you doing here? Go back to bed.” This was only met with further refusal, and so he picked her up, carried her kicking and wriggling and yelling down the hallway, and then deposited her on top of her bed. “Good -- now stay there.”

Minhee looked up at him with an expression of horror and betrayal; then her face crumpled, and she burst into tears. 

“Oh, come on,” Baekhyun sighed, “don’t give me that.” Sometimes, during difficult moments like this one, he had terrible thoughts that crept into his head of their own accord — of him smacking her, maybe going so far as to actually hurt her; and though he tried his hardest to push them away, each new second that they lingered in his mind was a fresh stain upon his soul.

He tried to say sorry to her — to say that it wasn’t her fault, she hadn’t been bad, he just wasn’t having a good time right now — but in the end she spurned any apologies or attempts at comfort, and so he left her alone to calm herself down. He didn’t close the bedroom door on her — that would be too cruel, he thought — but that meant he could hear her sniffling from where he sat, and the only way to concentrate on his work was to try and block it out. He let out a sigh and dropped his head into his hands, rubbing the tension away from his forehead and temples. What would Chanyeol do if he were here? Probably drop everything he was doing and take her to bed with him, and they would both sleep peacefully with no conflict. They would find a way to meet in the middle, because Chanyeol was always happy as long as his little girl was happy... but she couldn’t be happy all the time. No one could be happy all the time; the earlier she learned that, the better.

 

When he was finally done for the night, Baekhyun went into her room to check if she was still awake. “Minhee,” he whispered. She didn’t move. She had her face buried in her pillow, and he was sure that she’d cried herself to sleep. Next to her on the bed was her favourite stuffed lion, which Chanyeol had given her as a present. She really loved that lion doll; she had stuffed animals aplenty, many of which Baekhyun had bought for her, but this was the only one she would ever cuddle while she slept.

All he could do was stand in the doorway of her bedroom — silently watching the little body huddled under the covers, tufts of her black hair poking out from the top — and hope that by the time they each woke up the next day, she might have forgiven him. Satisfied that she was truly asleep, he turned toward the door, but then he heard a small, weak “daddy, wait,” and he turned to look at her again. Now she was sitting up in bed, rubbing her eyes — either because she was tired, or to wipe away fresh tears, or both.

“Wait,” she said again, in that heart-wrecking, tear-drenched little voice of hers, “come back.”

Baekhyun’s shoulders slumped. “Alright, fine,” he said, “you can come and sleep with me for one more night. But then you have to promise me that you’ll sleep in your own bed from now on.” She nodded her agreement, and he carried her with him to his bedroom; but even so, he could tell he would probably be making the same deal with her every single night until Chanyeol got home, and possibly even beyond that.

As usual, she fell asleep almost immediately, and tossed and turned and kicked Baekhyun’s legs while she was at it. Again he didn’t get a single wink until after she finally stopped moving; but this time, something about her being there was comforting, and he found that he didn’t really mind it after a while. The more he thought about it, the more he understood how she felt, especially now that Chanyeol was away. He didn’t like sleeping alone either; especially at this time of year, during the colder months. Chanyeol was good at keeping the bed warm. He was good at keeping Baekhyun warm; he could warm up the entire house just by being there. He was simply warmth itself.

 

And so it happened for the rest of Chanyeol’s time away, right up until the very last night: each time the same role, the same lines, Baekhyun repeating _“Minhee, honey, you have to sleep in your own bed”_ until he felt like a broken record, except that now there was no more sternness left in his voice. He’d all but lost the ability to be stern.

As usual, Minhee balled her hands up into fists and rubbed her eyes. She looked like she was tired but trying to hide it, as well as a little girl could. “But why?”

“Because you’re all grown up now,” Baekhyun said, “and you have a big bed of your own. And big beds are where big girls sleep.”

She pouted, jutting her bottom lip out so far, comically far, that it looked like a fat little pink sausage. It made Baekhyun want to reach over and pop it back in with with his finger. “But your bed is bigger,” she said.

Baekhyun repressed the urge to sigh, but he did allow himself a chuckle. “You can’t sleep here every night, Minhee. Especially not when daddy comes home.”

“But why?” That statistic about four-year-olds asking four hundred questions a day on average was surely true, Baekhyun thought. He had never kept a tally, but he was sure that Minhee gave other kids her age a run for their money in that regard.

He would give her an answer that she could work with, this time. Maybe what Chanyeol had said to him was right; he couldn’t talk to her like she was just another grown-up. There would be times when he would have to do his best to see things at her level. “Because if daddy rolls over in his sleep, he might roll right on top of you, and then he’ll squish you with his big belly and you’ll be all flat,” he said. “You’ll be flatter than the pancakes we had for breakfast the other day.”

Minhee giggled. “You don’t have a big belly… and daddy doesn’t either. But he does have giant feet.”

“Right. So he’ll squish you with his giant feet, then. And then there won’t be much of you left! I’ll have to roll you up like the Sunday paper and carry you around like that.” Then Baekhyun grabbed her and tickled her, and she squealed. _“No, stop!”_ He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder — which she loved, the sound of her shrieking laughter ringing all through the house — and dropped her gently on top of her bed.

“Alright, in you get.” Obediently, she scrambled under the covers and he tucked her in — a bit tighter, this time, so it would be harder for her to get out. “There,” he said, pushing her hair aside to kiss her forehead. “Now go to sleep.”

She pulled the covers right up to her face, her big brown eyes peeping out at him from underneath. “Will you read me a story first?”

Baekhyun pursed his lips so she wouldn’t see him frowning. On the bright side, he reminded himself, all of her books were about ten sentences long, and full of pictures. “Okay,” he said, “but one story only, and then you have to go to sleep. Promise?”

Minhee nodded emphatically, looking like the little bobblehead dog figurine that Chanyeol kept on the dashboard of his car. “Okay,” she said, “I promise.”

“Good,” Baekhyun said, walking over to her little bookshelf to pick something out that he could read to her — something short. “Because daddy needs to sleep too, you know. He needs to get enough sleep, or he’ll be at risk of heart disease, diabetes, and all other sorts of bad things.”

“What’s diabetes?” Minhee asked.

“It’s not good. It’s not something you'd want to have,” Baekhyun said, picking up a book and flicking through it, then rejecting it when he saw how wordy it was. “So make sure you always get enough sleep, okay, or you’ll make your body sad. Daddy doesn’t sleep much, and that’s why he’s in a bad mood sometimes.”

“Why don’t you sleep?”

“Because I worry about you and your other daddy, and that makes it a bit harder for me to fall asleep,” Baekhyun said. He took three suitable books down from the shelf and held them all up in front of her. “Which one would you like?”

 

To his relief, she nodded off nearly as soon as he’d finished reading, and Baekhyun left her alone, sneaking off quietly to his own room. He fell into bed and tried to get to sleep, but couldn’t, so he called Chanyeol; he just wanted to hear his voice again, even if it was only for a few minutes.

Chanyeol sounded happy to hear from him too. “I’ve missed you both terribly,” he said, “I really can’t wait to get home. How’s Minhee?”

Baekhyun wondered if it was worth relaying all his struggles with their daughter over the past nine days, but then he thought better of it; Chanyeol would only feel bad for being away. “She’s fine,” he said. “She misses you a lot too.”

“Has she been behaving herself?" 

“Well…” As soon as Baekhyun said this, he regretted it, but it was too late. “Yes, mostly. But she refuses to stay in her own bed, as usual.”

Chanyeol sighed. “I thought that might be the case. I hope you’ve been getting enough sleep… you sound tired.”

“I’ve been getting none at all,” Baekhyun said, laughing. “But I’ll be alright. I suppose I’m used to it now.”

He heard a tapping on the door then, followed by the sound of it creaking open, and when he lifted his head up to look, he could see Minhee’s silhouette in the doorway. “Minhee? What’s wrong?” 

“Is that her?” Chanyeol asked. “Put her on the phone.”

Baekhyun held the phone out towards their daughter. “Daddy’s on the phone. He wants to talk to you.”

Minhee took the phone from Baekhyun and held it carefully against her ear. “Hi daddy,” she said, and then she listened patiently for a minute or two while Chanyeol said something to her that Baekhyun couldn’t hear, only responding with short answers here and there. When she was finished, she said, “I love you too daddy, bye-bye,” and handed the phone back to Baekhyun.

“What were you talking to her about?” Baekhyun said to Chanyeol, amused.

“Nothing much. Just told her to be a good girl and let you sleep.” There was a smile in Chanyeol’s voice. “I love you, okay? I’ll see you soon.”

“Okay, love you more,” Baekhyun said, and ended the call. He looked over at Minhee, who was still standing next to his bed, looking glum. “Now what’s wrong, honeybun? Can’t sleep?”

She didn’t reply, just shook her head.

Baekhyun sighed. “Yeah, me neither.” He hauled himself upright, patting the mattress beside him. “Wanna keep daddy company?”

“Yes,” she said, and he lifted her into the bed. “Are you scared of monsters?” she asked, while Baekhyun bundled her in under the covers.

Baekhyun tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and smiled. “No.”

“Are you sad?”

“Not really... I was just feeling a bit lonely, that’s all. That’s why I called daddy.” Baekhyun found it hard enough to admit this to himself, let alone to his young daughter; but as soon as he said the words aloud, he felt a little better about it.

Minhee looked thoughtful for a moment. “Then I’ll stay here with you so you won’t be lonely,” she said. “And if any monsters come, I’ll make a scary face like this,” — here she demonstrated for him, but it was more adorable than frightening, Baekhyun thought — “and I’ll tell them to go away.” Then she got such a look of quiet determination on her face that it made Baekhyun bite his lip to hold in his laughter; she was serious, he could tell, and he didn’t want to belittle her.

“Well, that’s very kind of you,” he said, smiling at her. “I feel very safe now.”

“Do you miss daddy a lot?” she asked.

“I do. I always miss him when he’s away.”

“But it’s okay because he’ll be home soon, right?”

“That’s right. He’ll be home tomorrow night,” Baekhyun said quietly.

In an attempt to send Minhee to sleep, he started singing to her: old songs by The Beatles and Peter, Paul and Mary, the same songs his mother used to sing to him when he was little. He sang to her about Puff the Magic Dragon who lived by the sea, and his friend little Jackie Paper, who both played together along the cherry lane until little Jackie Paper was too big to play with his dragon friend anymore. (“Why is he called Jackie Paper? What a funny name,” Minhee said, and Baekhyun had to explain to her that he didn’t know, it was just how the song went.)

“Do you ever sing to daddy?” Minhee asked, yawning. The singing was finally working, Baekhyun thought; she was starting to look and sound sleepy.

Baekhyun glanced over at the framed photographs on the nightstand beside him: one of him and Chanyeol together, and another of the two of them with Minhee in the middle, taken at her third birthday party. He smiled, and began absently stroking his daughter’s hair, twirling strands of it around his fingers. “Not really… he always falls asleep before I get the chance.”

“Did your daddy sing to you too?”

Baekhyun shook his head. Minhee yawned again, and it made him yawn too this time, almost immediately — a sympathy yawn, he thought. Maybe they were more connected than he realised. “Nope. My mummy did, though.”

“What did she sing?” Minhee asked. “Can I hear?”

So Baekhyun sang for her some more, and she fell asleep cradled in his arms, while he was still whisper-singing into her soft hair. Baekhyun kept singing, only stopping when he eventually got pulled into slumber along with her. _The first time ever I saw your face, I thought the sun rose in your eyes. And the moon and stars were the gifts you gave, to the dark and empty skies._

 

*·。°*·。°*

 

The next morning, Baekhyun awoke to the sound of birds singing in the liquidambar tree outside his window. He braided Minhee’s hair so she would look nice for preschool — and did a clumsy job of it, he was sure, but she said that it looked fine, and if she was happy, he was happy too. She wore her favourite dress, the pink pinafore one with the multicoloured dinosaurs on it, and a white jumper and tights layered underneath. When he was finished with her hair, Baekhyun bent down to kiss her on the top of her head. “You’re always so pretty,” he said, “just like your daddy.”

She turned her head to look up at him curiously. “Which daddy? You, or other daddy?" 

“Other daddy, not me. I’m not pretty.” Baekhyun smiled, and then he fished his phone out from his pocket. “Here, let me take a photo so I can send it to him. I’m sure he’d love to see how nice you look.”

“I think you are,” Minhee said. “I’m pretty like you too.” And Baekhyun could tell by the way she said it, with no hesitation whatsoever, that she meant it.

“You know I love you, right?” he said to her while they were walking up to the preschool gates, her little hand in his.

“Yes,” she said, looking up at him with a big smile on her face. “I know.”

“And do you love me too?”

Minhee nodded vigorously. “Uh-huh.”

Baekhyun grinned back at her and waved her off. “Go on, then… go have fun. I’ll see you later.” He watched her run up the path toward the front door, and after she’d disappeared inside it, he drove off to work.

 

He took Minhee to the supermarket with him after he picked her up that afternoon, and she was walking beside him down the cereal aisle when an older lady excused herself to get past Baekhyun’s trolley.

“What a good little girl you have,” the woman observed as she passed, “helping you put things in the trolley like that.” She smiled at Minhee. “And such a pretty girl, too. She looks just like you.”

Baekhyun smiled at the woman. “She looks a lot more like her daddy, actually,” he said. “Her other daddy, I mean. She has two.”

The woman nodded, her smile unwavering. “You must be a very handsome couple,” she said, and added, “have a nice day” as she walked away.

“You too,” Baekhyun replied.

“Who was that lady?” Minhee asked, following the woman with her eyes as she moved off down the aisle.

Baekhyun shrugged. “Dunno,” he said. His mind was already moving on to other things. “So what do you want for dinner, then — spaghetti or pizza?”

 

*·。°*·。°*

 

That night, Chanyeol called during the cab ride home from the airport, and arrived when Baekhyun had just finished giving Minhee her dinner. “Guess who’s home!” he said, announcing himself in a voice so big and booming that it was almost a bellow. He stood in the open doorway holding his arms out wide so that Minhee could barrel into them, and he lifted her up in the air, planting a wet, noisy kiss on her cheek. “Hi, pretty girl… wow, you’re getting heavy! Did you miss me?”

Minhee nodded. “Yes,” she said, and in a loud whisper she added, “and so did daddy. He told me.”

“Is that so?” Chanyeol looked over at Baekhyun and winked. “Well, daddy and I have some catching up to do,” he said, gently lowering Minhee to the floor. “So he can tell me all about how much he missed me later.”

 

Baekhyun couldn’t wait for later, though. As soon as Chanyeol went into their bedroom to change his clothes, he followed him and pushed him up against the back of the door, pulling him in by the lapels of his jacket and kissing him hard.

“I missed you,” he said, smiling when Chanyeol laughed softly against his lips. “I really, really missed you.”

“Well, hello... there’s the ‘welcome home’ kiss I was waiting for.” Chanyeol’s eyes were still closed, and he held Baekhyun even tighter, kissing him again. “I missed you too,” he whispered. “So very much.”

“Don’t ever go away for that long again,” Baekhyun mumbled into his neck. “Please.” And Chanyeol could have said anything in response. He could have said _I had to. This is for us, for her… everything I do is for the three of us._ But all he said was “I won’t,” whispering it into another soft kiss on Baekhyun’s lips. “I’m not going anywhere again unless the two of you are with me.”

 

After he’d tucked Minhee into bed, Baekhyun walked past the living room and found Chanyeol sitting on the sofa, poring through an album of their daughter’s baby photos. “Do you remember how small she was here?” he whispered, so quietly it was almost like he was talking to himself. He looked a little misty-eyed. It was the same look, Baekhyun remembered, that he had in his eyes when he was holding her for the first time. “She was so tiny and beautiful. I could fit her entirely in the crook of my arm.”

Baekhyun stood there leaning against the doorway and watched him, smiling. “You look like you’re gonna cry,” he said.

Chanyeol shook his head, even though Baekhyun could already see that his eyes were shining. “I’m not… but it just feels like yesterday when we first brought her home, and now she’ll be going to school in less than a year. It kinda blows my mind a bit.” He was quiet for a moment, and when he finally looked up at Baekhyun he really did have tears in his eyes. “And then one day, I’m not gonna be able to pick her up anymore. And then maybe later she’ll stop wanting my cuddles… she’ll start thinking we’re uncool.”

Baekhyun’s face softened, and he walked over to sit next to Chanyeol, pulling the bigger of his two babies into his arms. “There there… it’s alright. She’s hardly a teenager, you know. Yet.”

Chanyeol nuzzled happily against Baekhyun’s neck. “Yeah, well, I’m sure it’ll come a lot quicker than we think,” he said. “So let’s enjoy things the way they are now, while we still can.”

 

In bed that night, Chanyeol held Baekhyun tighter than ever, clinging to him the way he always did whenever they’d spent some time apart. Baekhyun couldn’t take his eyes off him, even though he already knew everything about that pretty face, knew it better than the back of his hand: the single dimple that appeared when he smiled, the soft brown eyes, the softer lips. The beautiful little freckle on his nose. He leaned in to kiss it, laughing when Chanyeol smushed his mouth against his cheek in response, leaving a farty-sounding kiss of his own, and a softly-whispered _“_ I love you, my baby-daddy.”

“Technically _you’re_ the baby-daddy,” Baekhyun said, and he was only joking around, but Chanyeol’s expression was serious.

“No… we both made her, you know,” he said, looking at Baekhyun with a gaze so steady it was impossible to look away. “We were madly in love and we wanted a baby together, so we found a way to make one. She’s here because of both of us.”

“I know,” Baekhyun said quietly, “I’m just being stupid, as usual.” He began idly tracing the anchor tattooed on Chanyeol’s forearm to distract himself. _Are you a sailor or something?_ he’d asked jokingly on the night they first met, and Chanyeol had responded, equally flirtatious, with _if you have a thing for sailors, then yes, I am._

“No you’re not,” Chanyeol said. He picked up Baekhyun’s hand and tenderly kissed the back of it. “You’re never stupid.”

Baekhyun had to laugh at that. “Do you even know who you’re talking to..?”

“Yes.” Now Chanyeol was laughing too, softly into Baekhyun’s ear. “I was just trying to make you feel not-stupid.”

Baekhyun nodded. “I know. And I don’t want you to misunderstand me,” he said. “When I look at her, all I see is you... and I’m not resentful about that; it only makes me love her even more. But I can’t help wanting to see some part of me in her too. And I’m trying so hard to imprint the best parts of myself on her, but sometimes I’m not really sure what those are.”

“Well, she definitely takes after you in the sulking department,” Chanyeol said.

Baekhyun groaned and then laughed in quick succession. “Shut up!”

“You know I’m only joking.” Chanyeol smiled, and then he was quiet for a moment. “She’s a lot like you, I reckon. Determined. Thoughtful. Stubborn as all hell, sometimes. She’s the smartest little girl I’ve ever met. She can look at you and know exactly what you’re feeling. She’s made up of more of you than you realise.”

Having said this, he pushed Baekhyun down flat against the bed, leaning down to kiss him. “Anyway, it’ll be _your_ little swimmers making the next one — if there _is_ a next one. And then he or she will look like you, too.” He laughed softly, and then he carried on kissing Baekhyun, moving his lips down to his neck. “I really did miss you, you know,” he murmured, “you and your sexy body...”

“And you were making out like ten days wasn’t that long,” Baekhyun said drily.

“I never said that! And if I did then I’ll have to eat my words, because I missed you more than ever. Your kisses, the sound of your voice, your love… everything about you.” Chanyeol moved away from Baekhyun’s neck to kiss him on the mouth again instead, and Baekhyun felt the warmth of it flood through his body, turning him to liquid. So many years later, one kiss still made him feel like he could melt into the earth -- just one kiss, that was all it took.

“And I know she’s our baby, but you’re _my_ baby,” Chanyeol whispered, leaving trails over Baekhyun’s skin with his lips, from neck down to chest and then lower, and lower yet again. “My sweet baby… all mine.”

“Please… not now.” Baekhyun swallowed another groan, his toes curling into the sheets as Chanyeol pressed circles of kisses over his belly. “What if she walks in..?”

“C’mon, it’ll be fine. When was the last time I made you feel good, huh?” Suddenly there was a knock on their bedroom door, and Chanyeol’s head shot up from Baekhyun’s stomach, leaving the tingle of a kiss still lingering on the skin there. “Did you hear that?” he whispered.

Baekhyun sighed. He wriggled out from beneath Chanyeol, yanking his pyjama shirt down to cover himself. “Minhee,” he called out, “is that you?”

“Yes,” replied a little muffled voice, after a beat.

Chanyeol quickly rolled out of bed, his big feet thudding on the floor, and went to yank the door open. “Hi honey. What’s wrong?”

“I had a scary dream,” Minhee said, rubbing her eyes and pouting. She knew how to get him, the clever little thing; whatever she said, Baekhyun knew that Chanyeol was going to eat it up.

But to his surprise, Chanyeol didn’t. “Oh, sweetie… come on, I’ll take you back to your bed,” he cooed, and he scooped her up and carried her to her room instead. Now even Chanyeol, big as he was, looked like he was beginning to struggle with holding her. Maybe the time to stop picking her up would come even sooner than they expected, Baekhyun thought; and then he immediately wished he could unthink it.

 

He lay there waiting for Chanyeol to come back, torturously on the verge of sleep, but never quite falling into it. Minutes passed, but he didn’t return, and as much as Baekhyun tried to drift off, he couldn’t. The bed was cold without Chanyeol there — without Minhee there. He rolled over. Then he rolled over again. He tossed and turned for a long time — probably another half hour, although it felt much longer.

Finally, when he couldn’t stand it anymore, he rolled out of bed and walked over to Minhee’s bedroom. The door was ajar. He gently pushed it open, wincing at the creaking sound it made, but the gentle snores coming from within did not pause. When his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, he tiptoed over to the bed, sitting down on the edge of it, and Chanyeol sighed and moved over to make room for him. He was clearly half asleep, but one of his arms still curled around Baekhyun’s body, pulling him in close.

“Well, well,” he whispered, kissing Baekhyun’s ear, “look who finally showed up.”

“I was lonely in there all by myself,” Baekhyun said.

Chanyeol laughed softly. “I really don’t think this bed is made for three people.”

“Is she asleep?”

“Dead to the world.”

“Should we go back to our room..?”

Chanyeol thought about it for a moment. “Well, I’m actually pretty comfortable here, surprisingly. How about you?”

Baekhyun wriggled around a bit, curling up against Chanyeol’s stomach so that the three of them fit together like spoons: the littlest spoon first, and then the biggest, and then the middle one at the end. “It’s a little crowded, but I’ll deal,” he said. He reached behind him to give Chanyeol a little slap on the bum, and added, “I expect you to make it up to me tomorrow, though. Maybe we’ll just stick to our usual shower routine this time.”

Chanyeol laughed again, his breath warm on the back of Baekhyun’s neck. “Ooh, I can’t wait.”

“Roll over,” Minhee grumbled, half asleep. “Roll over, daddy.”

“You heard Her Majesty,” Chanyeol said, swatting Baekhyun’s bum in retaliation. “Make room.”

“If I roll over any more, I’ll fall off!” Baekhyun protested.

“No you won’t,” Chanyeol whispered, pulling him in even closer, “because I won’t let you.” And all through the night he kept his word: holding Baekhyun tight and secure, right up until the time he woke up in the morning.

 

 

 


End file.
